Clockwork Lemon

Herbed Goat Cheese and Mushroom Tarts

These appetizer tarts might look fancy, but they come together quickly and easily. Puff pastry is spread with a herbed goat's cheese, baked, and then topped with a pile of oyster mushrooms sauteed in butter. 

However, they did take my parents and I ten days to make them... because we grew the mushrooms at home from a kit. 

I received one of these grow your own mushroom kits from Mushrooms Canada while I was attending the Food Bloggers of Canada 2013 Conference (which was ahwe-some by the way) and the kit came with a little tag on it that said 'Blog Me'.

I have to be honest, when I saw the tag I thought to myself "probably not" for a couple of reasons. 

1. I am not a good gardener. Always hopeful and enthusiastic at first, then forgetful, then filled with regret as I toss yet another dead plant into the garbage.

2. I have a baking blog, so blogging about a mushroom kit didn't really seem like a good fit

3. We got a TON of swag at the conference so I wasn't even sure if a mushroom kit would make the cut of stuff I was willing to cram into my suitcase. 

But the kit DID make it home and I brought it over to my parent's house (aka where I bring most of my fancy food projects. See: Cheesepalzooa) to ask if they wanted to grow the mushrooms with me. We decided to give it a try seeing as all you had to do after soaking the mushroom bag was mist the box a couple times a day. 

Soft Peanut Butter Banana Oat Bars

I can't stand products at the grocery store that are obviously cashing in on the misconception that certain types of food are inhently healthy. Things like granola, granola bars, and yogurt loaded with so much sugar and filler that they end up being no better for you than a box of oreos. The products are always given super-healthy names and have little badges saying things like "all natural".

The opposite of these products are the super healthy recipes on the internet that have ultra decadent names they can never live up to. It's just a silly pet peeve of mine, and I know that it isn't doing anyone any harm (unlike when companies create unhealthy 'health' food) but I feel like we all know deep down inside that the 'cookies' made only from plain oats and mashed bananas wouldn't be welcome at most cookie swaps. The thing is, I'll make and eat those 'cookies' but I refuse to call them cookies. Because they aren't. 

It's like there's one group of people eating dessert and pretending its health food, and another group of people eating health food and pretending its dessert.

So these bars are healthy, and they are tasty. But I stubbornly refuse to give them a dessert-sounding name (but feel free to rename them for yourself as 'soft cookie bars' or 'peanut butter banana bread granola bars' or whatever entices those around you to try them). To me, they will always be peanut butter banana oat bars. 

 

They're a cross between a granola bar and baked oatmeal; soft and slightly chewy and studded with whatever add-ins strike your fancy. This version uses Peanut butter, cashews, coconut, chopped up walnuts, and banana to bind it and add some sweetness.  The riper the bananas, the better your bars will taste. It's the perfect opportunity to dig up those old, black bananas from the back of your freezer.

Chai Cinnamon Buns - Tips and Tricks

I recently embarked on a cinnamon bun baking marathon while coming up with this Chai cinnamon bun recipe for my Globe and Mail column. And by 'marathon' I mean making cinnamon buns every evening for three weeks straight. If only my new year's resolution had been to eat as many cinnamon buns as humanly possible, then I'd be able to cross it off and bask in my accomplishment for the rest of 2013.

 

 

Over the course of the bun baking bonanza I took notes on what made the best cinnamon buns as well as which make-ahead method worked best with the dough. Unfortunately, there were so many notes that there was no way to fit them all into my column unless I could convince the editors to dedicate pages and pages to cinnamon buns.  Luckily, blog space is unlimited so I'm compiling all my notes here so that everyone can get the most out of the recipe.

Ham and Swiss Muffins

I'm partial towards savory muffins, and this might be the tastiest savory muffin recipe I've ever made.

I had written down the flavor combo in a notebook months and months ago. It was almost forgotten until one afternoon at the grocery store when I noticed a small smoked ham on sale. I decided to buy it and use it for ham and swiss muffins.

As is sometimes the case with recipe development, the first couple of batches ranged from 'meh' to 'lets throw that right into the garbage'.  The ham was used up, the test recipes tucked away in a binder, and the project was put on hold.

It wasn't until a bit of leftover ham from the holidays jogged my memory and inspired me to work the kinks out of the recipe that this verison came into being.

Cranberry Eggnog Muffins { aka Christmas Morning Muffins}

In my opinion, these muffins are the perfect Christmas morning muffins: tart cranberries, sweet eggnog, walnuts and hints of cinnamon all baked together.

As far back as I can remember my mom has been making these muffins along with some cheddar bacon muffins and banana muffins for Christmas morning. She bakes them earlier in the week and then freezes them. On Christmas we slice up fruit, set out a cheese platter, warm up some muffins and have a easy and relaxing breakfast together.

So I'm a little biased towards these particular muffins, but they are tasty enough to have won a spot on our breakfast table for at least a decade (correction) 21 years!

 

 

Maybe it's the perfect flavor combination that has kept them around for so long. Or maybe it's the fact that I'm super anal about Christmas traditions and everything (and I mean everything) has to happen the same way every. single. year.

We wouldn't let terrible muffins to ruin our Christmas year after year so it's probably a little bit of both.

 

Pumpkin Scones with Cinnamon Butter

My goal is to eat as many pumpkin flavored things as possible before the season is over. Luckily, it's easily achieveable, especially when I have a plate a pumpkin scones waiting for me in the kitchen. They're soft and moist with a crispy crust and when you slather them with spicy brown sugar cinnamon butter they make you forget that there's been an ice fog hanging around outside for three days straight.

Just a week or two ago it was the most beautiful autumn outside and warm enough to walk around and enjoy it. Then BAM, a big wind blew the leaves off the trees, the sky dumped down a foot of snow, and now it's suddenly winter. 

It's still autumn in my kitchen though. I'm hanging on for at least a little bit longer...

..and nothing says autumn like pumpkin and spices baked into scones.

I like my scones to be moist but still light and flaky instead of dense. It took a few versions and a number of adjustments before I was happy with the texture and flavor.

The recipe is really straight forward: Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and then cut in the butter or work it in with your fingers until the mixture looks crumbly. The pumpkin, cream, and vanilla are stirred together in another bowl and then everything is combined to make a dough.